Like many other staples of 20th century schools, the textbook is gradually becoming absorbed into the growing technological landscape in education.

But the printed page isn't in danger of extinction in MetroWest classrooms just yet, and may not be for the foreseeable future.

"I think we're in this interesting kind of in-between phase right now," said Linda Vaden-Goad, vice president of academic affairs at Framingham State University. "I feel fairly certain we're moving toward digital content, and that digital content will continue to get better."

But ultimately, she said, it will be students' preferences that dictate where that movement goes next.

At schools in the region, the transition is already underway, with many districts offering a range of options. Depending on the subject or grade level, students are either reading printed books only, fully online texts, or a hybrid of the two in which digital content supplements a hardcopy textbook.

"It's all very new at this point. But we do know students learn by being engaged," said Maureen Greulich, executive director of secondary education at the Marlborough schools. The digital environment, she added, "is the world they will work in, and the world they will grow up in."

Marlborough's transition to online content is being driven partly by the district's simultaneous move to a one-to-one computing model. This upcoming school year, students in fifth through ninth grade will all have Chromebooks, Greulich said.

"A drawback (of online content) is ensuring that all students have access to the tools in school and at home," said Framingham Superintendent Stacy Scott, whose schools are also planning to provide more laptops to individual students in the coming years. "As the district moves toward a higher student-to-device ratio and as the proliferation of handheld devices at home increases, access will be less and less of a problem."

Kevin McIntyre, the Milford schools' assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and assessment, estimates in three to five years the majority of work students will be doing will be online. There are numerous advantages to digital text, he said, including the ability to offer interactive content and immediate feedback, as well as features that can better accommodate disabled students.

"I think it's an overall positive development," he said.

It's also a relatively affordable one for now, school officials said; many textbook publishers will discount their products, for example, if districts buy bundled print and online content.

At the college level, meanwhile, where the students are the ones expected to bear the cost of their reading materials, digital books provide a real cost-saving option. Nicole Curley, a recent graduate of Framingham State who is hoping to get into a graduate program at the school, estimated she saved about $100 on her recent purchase of an online psychology book.

Page 2 of 2 - "It's ridiculous how much (textbooks) cost," she said, adding many classes now will allow students to buy cheaper, older editions if they only have a few differences from the newer ones. "I know the professors are trying to be accommodating."

At Framingham State, for example, they are more frequently making available open source material, which can be shared for free with all students, Vaden-Goad said.

"It's really an exciting time in academics, because of this explosion in access to material," she said, adding one of the main challenges for institutions like Framingham State is to make sure students are still accessing content that meets high standards of scholarship.

Tom Hallock, the associate publisher at Boston-based Beacon Press, said the transition to digital content is "so far, so good" in his industry, although the explosion of electronic books in the wake of the introduction of the Kindle and similar devices several years ago has plateaued more recently. Currently, Beacon's sales - the company sells fiction and non-fiction educational books - are approximately 80 percent print, 20 percent digital.

"I don't know what choice we have. The market moves in directions according to its own logic," he said. "From a financial point of view, it doesn't make a real difference to us. The good news is that people are reading."

But contrary to what might be popular opinion, the move to online reading isn't being completely embraced by the current generation of students, he said. "There does still seem to be a preference for print."

"I'm an English major - I have to write inside them," said Sarah Gonsalves, a graduate student at Framingham State who said she doesn't envision herself ever becoming a convert to digital print. "I'm a dying breed, I know."

"It depends on your learning style," said Curley, who also feels a little more at home with printed text. "Online books are harder to navigate. It's a lot easier to just flip through a book."

The practical benefits of a hardcopy book may never be entirely replicated by a computer, which is why some school officials believe textbooks, unlike writing slates and the abacus, could stick around a little while longer yet.

"Sometimes the textbook is still the best way," Greulich said.

Scott O'Connell can be reached at 508-626-4449 or soconnell@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottOConnellMW